How to build a recognizable, reliable brand on social media
It’s important for any company – especially if younger generations are in their target market – to have an online presence. Many people now use social media for over an hour a day, meaning digital platforms are one of the easiest ways to reach new customers or clients. When setting up your social media accounts and creating a recognizable, reliable brand for your company, consider the following tips:
Choose your tone
Some brands are great at jokes on social media, while some are known for responding to every comment. You’re probably better off avoiding too much humor unless you have a hilarious digital marketer on your team who always has tasteful puns on hand, but whatever tone you go for, stay consistent. Additionally, choose which social media networks you want to use. Pinterest, for example, is particularly popular among female users, Facebook will allow you to reach all kinds of people across a large range of ages and Instagram provides the opportunity to create a gorgeous visual portfolio for your business.
Be consistent with your posts
Choose how often you post updates, deals, products news, or competitions on social media and be consistent with this frequency. Whether you post three times a day or twice a week is up to you, but your followers will appreciate consistency; having your posts appear as expected will help them to feel like they know your brand well.
At first, it can be challenging to determine how often to post. Remember that while you don’t want to overwhelm your followers, small, juicy reminders of the existence of your company never hurt. Even just a quick post commenting on the weather in your city or a well-framed image of someone wearing or using one of your products ‘out in the wild’ will do the trick!
Respond to comments graciously
At some point, you will receive comments you don’t agree with and you may get complaints that you will need to put right. You don’t always have to respond to comments on your social media accounts, but when you do, ensure you’re always gracious and professional.
Sometimes, comments can be downright malicious. You don’t necessarily need to reply to these types of comments – the person making them might simply be looking for attention – but ensure you don’t lose your temper and respond in a way that’ll reflect badly on your company and discourage future customers or clients from working with you.
Proofread before posting
It sounds obvious, but it’s amazing how many brands consistently make typos in their posts. If your customers can’t trust you to proofread your posts, how can they trust that your products or services will be of an acceptable standard?
This is extra important if you’re maintaining a website – people will be deliberately viewing your site to find out about your company, so don’t give them the impression that you aren’t even capable of checking your grammar and spelling. Download an app such as Ulysses or Grammarly to help check your spelling and sentence structure while you type and offer suggestions.
Hold competitions and giveaways
If you’re in a position to give away some free products, holding a competition once in a while is a great way to excite your customer base and show the generous spirit of your brand.
Well-planned, fair ‘draw’ style giveaways are incredibly easy to set up, will give people a good impression of your brand and encourage them to interact with it. Be smart about giveaways: you might like to tell your followers that to enter, they must share one of your advertisements or tag a friend they’d like to share the prize with. This way, the cost of any product you give away will be accounted for by the advertising the competition gives you.
Advertise your social media handles
Once you’ve established your social media handles, advertise them! Put them on your business cards and on your product packaging.
Building a brand on social media will take time and patience, but it’ll be worth it if you can market to your target audience. Start planning your company’s branding and enjoy the reach that only social media can give you!
Cloe Matheson is a freelance writer from Dunedin, New Zealand. She loves discussing events and has previously produced articles for sites such as Auckland Conventions. To see more of Cloe’s work, visit her Tumblr page.